NOOSE TIGHTENS AS CHIEFS FALL APART
Under-fire Komphela under more pressure as Chiefs suffer humiliating 3-1 defeat away to a struggling Chippa United
KAIZER Chiefs on Friday won a boardroom battle against former player Siboniso Gaxa, but their Absa Premiership title hopes took yet another blow barely a day later when they squandered a lead to suffer a 3-1 defeat to Chippa United in Port Elizabeth.
Gaxa, who joined Bidvest Wits as a free agent last week, accused Chiefs of doing a U-turn on a binding contract extension between the two parties in October last year. The club insisted there was no legitimate agreement in place even though there was an official statement on Amakhosi’s Twitter account that Gaxa, who won the Premier League title twice while at Amakhosi, would stay on. “Former Kaizer Chiefs defender Sibon i so Ga x a ’ s claim for compensat ion against the club has been rejected by the NSL’s Dispute Resolution Cham- ber (DRC). The DRC found no grounds supporting the player’s assertion that a binding contract still existed between himself and the club after he was released by Amakhosi in June 2016,” a statement on the Chiefs webiste read.
But hardly a day subsequent to that statement, Chiefs could not get their way on the pitch as pressure mounted on beleaguered coach Steve Komphela, pictured, following defeat to Chippa at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday night, a result which compounded more misery on the club and extended their winless run to eight matches in all competitions.
Komphela’s record at Amakhosi in the 2016 calendar year also took a heavy knock, with a win ratio of 34 percent since January, when criticism of the coach being an underachiever picked up momentum and Chiefs surrendered their Absa Premiership title to Mamelodi Sundowns in May.
Chiefs management were mum about Komphela’s future after losing to a Chippa United side that ended their own horrible streak of seven matches without a win.
Komphela has in the past claimed that he enjoys an incredible amount of support from his bosses, but having slipped down to seventh-place on the log table after 12 matches, seven points off the leaders Cape Town City, and increasingly looking off the pace compared to their fellow championship contenders, the coach now seems to be hanging on to his job by the thinnest of threads.
Amakhosi took the lead in the first half through Siphiwe Tshabalala. But it all went pearshaped after the half-time break as Lerato Manzini grabbed a double either side of Tshwarelo Bereng’s goal to ensure an emphatic victory that also gave their coach Dan Malesela reprieve. The added pressure for Komphela also comes on the back of ending his maiden season at Chiefs without winning a trophy despite reaching the MTN8 and the Telkom Knockout finals shortly after his arrival in Naturena. It appeared he’d finally got hold of a winning formula when, notwithstanding the wobbly start of the current season, Amakhosi managed an eight-game unbeaten run which included five consecutive victories in all competitions until the wheels came off again recently.